Boulder needs to spend more money on its roads and on promoting alternative transportation. Businesses should be required to recycle. The city should not try to change the four-body review process that gives Boulder County control over what happens in the planning reserve north of Boulder.

On these and other issues, the four City Council candidates who participated Friday in the second of three PLAN-Boulder County forums largely agreed, though they emphasized different priorities.

Incumbent City Councilman Macon Cowles, an attorney by profession, said the city needs to take bold steps to make progress on environmental issues. His priorities would be the city's climate action plan and ensuring fiscal sustainability by closing the long-term budget gap.

John Gerstle, a Boulder County planning commissioner and water resources engineer, said he wants to maintain many of the things that have made Boulder a vibrant community of which others are jealous, including the "blue line" that limits development west of Boulder, the height restrictions and the extensive open space system.

Sam Weaver, a Boulder Planning Board member and CEO of Cool Energy, a waste-heat recycling company, wants to focus on sustainable energy issues and affordable housing.

Andrew Shoemaker, an attorney and former Planning Board member who co-chaired the Boulder stage of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge, said he wants Boulder to be a place where families with children can still afford to live.

The forum was moderated by Bruce Goldstein, a PLAN board member and associate professor of environmental design and environmental studies at the University of Colorado. Boulder Mayor Matt Appelbaum, Planning Board Member Mary Young and "Grateful Fred" Smith, a laborer who is on disability, participated in the first forum earlier this month.

The third forum Monday will include land use attorney Ed Byrne, environmental activist Micah Parkin, web designer Kevin Hotaling and Jonathan Dings, chief of planning and assessment with the Boulder Valley School District and chairman of the city's Human Relations Commission.

There are five open seats on the Boulder City Council.

Tech bubble

Asked whether they are concerned about a tech bubble in the Boulder economy, Gerstle said he wasn't sure, but he doesn't think addressing that concern is a top city priority. Weaver said a bursting tech bubble could have an impact on tax revenues, but Boulder's business community is sufficiently diverse -- from natural foods producers to outdoor gear companies to clean energy -- that the impact can be mitigated. Shoemaker said it can be difficult to adapt to new technology, but it ultimately facilitates progress.

And Cowles said he is more concerned about the personal bubble that technology allows people to create around themselves than any economic bubble. He compared the smart phone to the mirror of Narcissus in Greek mythology and said people were cutting themselves off from the I-Thou relationship described by philosopher Martin Buber.

Bias toward developers?

Asked whether the city Planning Department is biased in favor of developers, all of the candidates said they don't believe city staff members are biased, but they do develop close working relationships with developers.

Shoemaker said that when he was on the Planning Board, he asked staff to not refer to developers by their first name because it gave an inappropriately chummy impression to the public.

Gerstle said planners tend to want to see things happen, and developers are the people who make things happen. There may be a tendency to favor action over inaction, but not a bias toward developers per se.

Weaver said the Planning Board is the regulatory body that sets expectations for staff, and with the current Planning Board denying more projects, staff is carrying those expectations to developers.

Cowles said the city's planners are in the same department -- Community Planning and Sustainability -- that oversees environmental initiatives and municipalization, and they wouldn't undermine their own goals or the goals of the city. When they recommend a project, it's because it has conformed to the standards that have been set by a public process.

Big issues

On the biggest issue facing the region, Shoemaker named housing and transportation. He said the city has paid "lip service" to affordable housing but not done enough to address the issue head-on. He said city has largely addressed energy issues.

Weaver said the city has not done enough for the climate, but he agreed that transportation was a top regional issue. The city's high number of in-commuters could be addressed in part by zoning changes to allow more accessory units.

Cowles said the biggest issue is one outside the city's control -- funding for state government and services -- followed by transportation.

Gerstle said there never will be enough housing in Boulder for everyone who works here, and improving transportation networks will help address environmental issues.

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